When Cleveland singer Kid Cudi left the stage after only 30 minutes while serving as an opener for Outkast Saturday night, it left a lot of fans scratching their heads.

"They want to speed this thing up, so I’m going to do 'Pursuit' and then get the f*** out of here," he said, referring to his hit "Pursuit of Happiness." Up until then, the crowd in the Gold section, at least, seemed to be enjoying the performance, bobbing their heads and singing along to songs including "REFOREV" and "Soundtrack 2 My Life." It also seemed odd that Cudi's set would be so short in relation to fellow opener Childish Gambino, who played for about an hour.

But Reddit user fs200vids claims Cudi cut his own set short because the audience wasn't responding the way he wanted them to, even going as far as changing the lyrics to "Pursuit of Happiness" to reflect his frustration:

"Hey guys, I was there Saturday night for this show. I saw Raury, Childish Gambino, Kid Cudi, and Outkast.

I've been a huge Cudi fan for the longest time, and this ... pissed me off.

The thing is, right before his set, he said something along the lines of "Hey guys, I'm Kid Cudi. I bring only positive energy and am here to open for Outkast. I'm not the main act, I'm just here to warm ya'll up!"

Then, as he was playing, he slowly got more and more irritated. His first comment was a sarcastic "Thanks to my five fans that are here!"

Then he stops playing his part in Memories (David Guetta) in the middle and says that nobody's feeling him, and that he was going to stop and just play Pursuit. Then this s**t happened when he changed the lyrics...Disrespectful and whiny...He can't expect everyone to know his music when he is an OPENER. Not a main act.

There was a different generation there. Not everyone knows who he is, and he needs to know that.

On a side note, Gambino put on a hell of a show."

Some redditors suggested he might be struggling with depression or other issues.

I didn't see any animosity on my end, but I also didn't catch the lyric changes. Were you at Saturday's show? Did you think he came across as upset? What did you think of his performance?

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